Father and Son
by InvisibleJediMaster
Summary: Yes, this is a 'Damas doesn't die' story. Jak uses light eco to save Damas after the crash, but Damas still thinks he's dying and tells Jak to find his son. Later, Jak visits the recovering Damas with something important to say. Now with sequel chaps!
1. Reunion

I've read some of those 'Damas doesn't die' stories and 'father son reunion' stories and I decided to write my own.

There is transcribed stuff. I don't own it. Don't skip through please.

* * *

Jak shook his head to remove the daze from the explosion. He'd been thrown a fair distance, but he seemed okay. Daxter was clinging to a strap of Jak's armor since he'd been thrown from the hero's shoulder, but as Jak stood, Daxter climbed back up to his shoulder. Then they remembered that they hadn't been alone and spun around to look at the car that had flipped with Damas only partially out of it, being crushed under the roll cage.

"Damas!" Jak shouted in alarm, seeing that the Spargus King was unconscious and badly wounded. He ran over to the car shifted into his Dark form for the boost in strength, which he used to lift the car up enough to slide Damas out from under it with his foot and Daxter's help dragging the King.

Once Damas was clear of the car, Jak dropped it and released his Dark form. He picked up Damas from under the arms and dragged him further away from the car as it rolled towards them slightly and then settled onto the top of the roll cage.

"This looks bad," Daxter says, pointing out the obvious. Damas's left leg was bent awkwardly and likely broken in a few places. His torso had deep cuts on it, was bleeding swiftly, and seemed flatter than it should be. There was a large patch of skin scraped off the back of Damas's right leg. The King's upper body seemed okay, though he probably had a concussion also. "Hey, Jak, maybe you can heal him with those light powers of yours!"

Jak opened his mouth to say something contrary, that he couldn't use his eco powers on other people like that, but he shut his mouth again when he realized that he'd never actually tried. So Jak pulled Damas's broken leg straight and then made him sit up slightly so Jak could sit under him and enclose the King in his arms.

"Hopefully this works..." Jak summoned the light eco inside him and shifted into his Light form, casting the area in a soft glow. As he started to focus his healing, he seemed to glow even brighter with a strong inner light. Jak tried to direct the light eco into Damas the same way he directed his dark eco for attacks and the same way he used to channel yellow eco so long ago.

It seemed to work. Damas started to glow softly as well, though his light was much dimmer than Jak's. Jak in his Light form also felt a very weak resonance of light from Damas, so he assumed the healing was working.

When the glow was gone and Jak was in his normal form, Damas's wounds seemed a little smaller and his torso was back to a normal size. His leg was still broken, though they didn't immediately know that because Jak had straightened Damas's leg before the healing.

Damas's concussion seemed to be gone as well because he revived and began to speak, though from his words Jak and Daxter realized that the King still thought he was going to die.

"You're awake? Damas!"

"Not bad driving, kid. It was a good fight," he coughs, "and a good day to die. I'm very proud to have been by your side in the end." He coughs again. "This world is not yet out of heroes."

"We did well, together. Don't move, I'll--."

"Please, promise me one thing; promise me you'll find my son, Mar. You'll know him when you see this." Damas reaches up and hands Jak a Precursor metal amulet. "He's wearing an amulet just like it."

Jak has a flashback of seeing his younger self wearing the amulet before the young boy is sent back in time with the younger Samos.

Damas continues talking. "A symbol of our lineage with the great house of Mar." Damas coughs again, reclaiming Jak's attention away from his flashback. "Save the people, Jak. They need you." Damas, exhausted, falls unconscious once again, seemingly dead. But Jak could still feel that little bit of light eco inside Damas echoing with his own greater store from which it had come. It was weak but steady, no longer waning like immediately after the healing when the energy of the light eco was being utilized by Damas's unconscious body to repair itself enough to survive.

"Father."

"Yes," the unwelcome voice of Veger comes to Jak's ears as he walks nearer, "you were that child. I took you from Damas, hoping to harness your eco powers for my experiments. Then I lost you to the Underground. You seem upset. Did I tell you too late? You were the son of the great warrior Damas. Oh, and he never knew. How delightful."

Jak screams in rage and his Dark self flares up momentarily. "Aahh!! Veger!"

"Thank you for opening the door to the Precursors. Don't worry; I'll be back to put you out of your misery." Veger then takes off in one of the two transports at the ramp entrance.

"After him, Jak!" Daxter pipes up, suddenly leaping to his best friend's shoulder and pointing after Veger.

Jak, surprised at the ottsel's enthusiasm, says, "You're willing to go down there? Without a fuss this time?"

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it. It's just that nobody hurts my best friend and lives to brag about it. Let's get him!"

Jak was about to go after Veger right then, but he looked back at Damas's still form, which was still alive even though no one, not even Damas, seemed to think so.

"We can't just leave him here." Jak crouched down at Damas's side and picked him up. "We're going to the Precursors, so maybe they can do something?"

"It's worth a shot, Jak. He really will die if we leave him out here with all the Metal Heads."

"Alright. Let's go." Jak carried Damas over to the tunnel transport and laid him carefully in the back seat, using the provided seatbelt for once in his life to strap him down.

Jak races through the tunnel network, eventually arriving at the Precursor's platform, though Veger is, oddly, not in sight.

"Greetings, great warrior," comes from the massive statue in the center. Two massive gun-shaped mechanisms are to either side of it. "Before it is too late, you must power up the planet's defense system." Jak takes the energy sphere and places it in a stand in the middle of the platform. "The eco sphere has begun its energy conversion. It will take some time for the weapon to fully charge."

Veger comes walking to the center of the platform from a hidden alcove, but Jak does not yet notice him. His attention is taken by the Precursor light being that manifests at the base of the statue.

"You have proven your worth, warrior," says the figure of light, "and we grant you the gift of evolution; the honor of becoming one of us."

"Step aside! I will be the one who evolves into a Precursor." Veger makes his presence known to Jak and Daxter. "The right is mine!" he declares as he levels a handgun at Jak's head.

"Be careful what you wish for," warns the light figure, then gesturing and causing Veger to glow briefly with light. Jak and Daxter wince at the loss.

Veger collapses to his knees after the light fades away. "It is done. Don't worry, Jak. It is for the greater good that I have assumed this role," Veger levels the gun at Jak again as he gets up.

"Even now, it may be too late," the Precursor voice continues. "If Erol awakens the Dark Ship's cargo, all will be lost.

"Listen glow boy," Daxter leaps off Jak's shoulder, "we've been doing all your dirty work while you slept in the stores! So, stop it!"

"Inefficient!" The figure points at Daxter and Jak. He then looks aver his shoulder at the statue. "I told you we needed a backup hero. We should have gone with plan B." Jak is visibly confused at this sudden break in character. "Ow! Hey! Cut it out!" The light figure is jerked about in the air for a moment before vanishing. The door behind him in the base of the statue begins to open.

The trio are blinded and then squint into the bright light from behind the door as the voice continues speaking. "We are unhappy with your performance. If you had been a true hero, you would have stopped Erol by now."

The three can now clearly see through the opened doors. There is advanced machinery inside, as well as three floating platforms with an orange furry creature strangely similar in appearance to Daxter on each one. They all turn around to look as they realize that the door is open.

The sound of Veger dropping his staff is loud in the silence.

"Oh my God," is all Jak can think of to say.

"Yes, well, um," the largest one on the middle platform stalls, speaking into a microphone that is obviously causing the voice distortion. He turns his back and continues speaking. "Now we are even more angry and, uh, we order you to avert your eyes or we will, um..." He visibly gives up with the ruse and tosses the microphone away with an, "Oh, bother," in a very different voice.

"They look like me?" Daxter says, surprised.

"Not what you expected," the leader says.

"Yeah, we, like, get that a lot," says the one on the right with a surfer accent.

"Don't look so upset," the leader continues as Jak runs his hands over his face in disbelief. "If you knew we Precursors were a bunch of little fuzzy rats, would you worship us? Could we run the universe?" Veger looks as if he's having a heart attack.

"Not possible buddy," says the Precursor on the right.

"So we fluff up the myth. A bit."

The Precursor on the left speaks. "And we get the respect we deserve!"

Veger is outraged and in denial. "You idiots! Get down from there and stop defiling that glorious machine!" He aims his gun at them but is immediately restrained with a red energy ring that appears from nowhere.

"Do not let our size fool you. We are the most powerful beings in the universe."

"We are?" The left Precursor claps vigorously in excitement, but he is immediately shushed by the other two and falls over.

"Why does Daxter look like--?" Jak gestures at his fuzzy orange friend.

"Ah, yes. All eco contains the source of our essence, our code so to speak. When Daxter touched the dark eco, he was actually blessed when he thought he was cursed."

Daxter is, of course, delighted at this news. "Woo hoo! I'm a Precursor!" He starts dancing in front of the restrained Veger, who can't help but look down at Daxter. "I'm a Precursor! I'm a Precursor! Hey!" He suddenly stops dancing. "Wait a minute. They have pants!" All three Precursors look at their pants.

"These creatures are the great Precursors?" Veger is stunned. "And I wanted to evolve into the--" He realizes and looks over at the Precursors. "No!" He screams as his transformation finally takes place. There is a flash of light and he shrinks rapidly into a Precursor body with jacket and shirt but no pants.

"A little drafty, isn't it?" Veger looks at his pants-less legs, now furry, then at Daxter, who'd spoken.

"The only way to ensure that Erol will not awaken the ship's cargo is to go there yourself and stop him," the Precursor leader says, ignoring Veger. Daxter, very pleased with himself, jumps up to Jak's shoulder. "We will send you there from here." A sphere of energy appears behind them, indicating a portal.

"But the weapon," Jak gestures to the still-charging defense system.

"Chill out dude," the right Precursor says. "You should have mondo minutes to go there and get back here pronto. Way before the--"

The leader cuts him off. "Hopefully before--"

The left Precursor cuts off the leader. "BABOOM! Oh yeah." Then he laughs as the other two glare at the back of his head.

"Ah, before I go, can you Precursors send...my father (Jak was having a hard time thinking of King Damas as his father) back to his city? So he'll be safe while we..." Jak's voice dropped off since he wasn't positive about what exactly he would be doing other than going after Erol. He looked back at the transport than Damas was still laying in.

"Of course, Jak. While you are on the Dark Maker ship, that man will be sent back to his palace."

"Why bother with a dead man...?" Veger the ottsel muttered under his breath. He was ignored.

"Thank you."

"Now go, and stop Erol."

"Let's move."

Jak turned and ran, leaping into the portal and vanishing with a flash of light.

"You idiots. I told you we needed a plan B!" says the leader.

The Precursors float over to the transport Jak had used. A flash of light comes from it and Damas's body disappears.

Jak races through the Dark Maker ship to Erol and leaps at him, knocking him off a ledge, but he uses jet boosters to fly back up.

"Jak!" Daxter screams from the ledge as Jak continues to fall. The planet defense system finally fires and a massive beam of energy shoots through the ship starting of its destruction. Erol gets into one of the massive machines and it falls down through an opening port. Light Jak flies back up onto the ledge and grabs Daxter.

"Let's go Dax!" he says as his light powers vanish again. They run across the collapsing ledge and through a portal just before the ship explodes.

"We did it! Woo hoo!" Daxter screams with joy just as they appear in the desert in front of the outer wall of Spargus City.

Erol's ship, flaming in the atmosphere, shoots across the sky and crashes deep in the desert.

"This guy just won't quit!"

"It's headed for the city," Jak says as he gets to his feet. "We've gotta defend it. For Damas."

"The last charge of the dark and light brigade! Let's do it, partner."

"To the end."

They take off in the vehicle carelessly left outside the walls and eventually shoot the legs of Erol's massive machine out from under it. The main body and head of the thing detach and fly off to crash in the desert a distance away. It lands near the Spargus city wall, where Jak drives up to it and climbs up the side to reach the top and fight Erol.

After damaging the head where Erol is sitting enough, it starts to flail about. Jak times a last shot with his Peacemaker and hits the tank on the back of the head, causing it to explode and destroy Erol, who was inside.

The entire machine explodes and Jak and Daxter walk back triumphantly through the sand storm caused by the explosion to Ashelin and Sig who were waiting with a vehicle right outside the city wall.

Later, the Precursors are having a ceremony inside the Spargus arena, most of which is filled with their massive ship. Sig is sitting on the throne in the place of King Damas.

The Precursor leader is giving a speech. "Thank you brave people of this planet; Onin, Samos, and all. Your strength and wisdom in these dark times give us reason to fight on."

"My life's work, it turns out, was spent searching for a bunch of furballs," Samos sighs.

Pecker says, "Onin says, 'It is a great day for the universe.'"

"Jak," the Precursors continue, "you are the greatest of heroes. You have turned the tide against the Dark Makers and together we will win this war."

The right Precursor with the surfer accent says, "But dude, there are, like, way more challenges in the future."

The idiotic left Precursor then says, "Hah! Or was it the past?"

"Yes, yes, I was just getting to that," the leader resumes.

"More adventures?" says Jak with a tired voice. "Where have I heard that before?" He livens up.

"We need heroes like you to help us protect the universe, Jak."

"Then you can call me by my first name, by what my father called me; Mar."

"Wait; Jak is Mar?" Ashelin is surprised. "The Mar?"

"Come then, Mar. No time like the present."

"You coming, Dax?" Jak looks back.

"Eh. I got all I need right here, baby." He looks at Tess, who sits beside him. "But if you need me--and I know you will!--you know where to find me."

"Ooh, Daxter! My little hero!" Tess rubs Daxter's furry belly.

"We owe you much, Daxter, for all you've done. For your bravery in the face of incredible danger, we shall grant you your deepest desire.

"You know, I could really use a snazzy pair of pants. Like yours." The Precursor leader zaps Daxter and then he has pants.

"Wow," admires Tess, "those are sharp. I wish I had a pair just like that."

"Be careful what you wish for." The Precursor leader zaps Tess and she is turned into an ottsel with her own miniature version of what she had been wearing before.

Daxter whistles. "Don't worry, honey. You get used to it. Oh, and you may want to shave some parts. trust me on that." He grabs her for a kiss.

"Hey!" Jak interrupts the kiss. "Thanks for everything. Partner."

"You are a great hero, Daxter," Seem says.

"This is gonna be good!" Daxter bows. "They think I'm a god. And they're right!"

The door to the ship opens and voices coming from the light inside it say, "Our hero!"

As Jak and the Precursors turn and look, ottsel Veger sighs and says, "This is going to be a long trip," and starts walking forward, assuming he, now that he's an ottsel, will have to go with Jak and the Precursors.

Kleiver immediately snatches him up. "Where do you think you're going, little bugger? I've decided I want me own sidekick and you've been nominated. We're gonna be a great team. Just don't make me angry." Veger is placed on Kleiver's armored shoulder, copying Daxter.

"Are you ready Jak?" the leader asks. "We have something to show you."

"What?"

"The universe!"

The ship's door closes, sealing off the light from inside, and it flies up steadily, taking off while everyone looks up at it. Jak appears behind Daxter unexpectedly. Everyone assumed he'd gone on the ship. "Ah, I couldn't leave you, Dax," Jax explains. "With all our adventures ahead, you wouldn't last a second without me."

"Ah," Pecker lands next to Daxter, "what a team we are."

"Yeah, well, the next adventure, I call the shots!" challenges Daxter. "Put her there, partner," Daxter offers a hand to Pecker. Pecker reaches for it but Daxter quickly withdraws it. "Hah! Psyche! Oh yeah. Life is good."

"Besides, Dax," Jak says, interrupting Daxter, "I can finally get to know my father."

"Hey, yeah! Let's go see how the King is doing. I know you healed him, but that was only some of the way, right?"

Everyone gathers on the main platform now that the ceremony is over as Jak and Daxter talk. "What!?" Pecker squeals. "Your father!?"

"The King?" Ashelin adds.

Sig is curious also. "What's this you're saying about Damas and Jak's pa?"

Daxter recounts how Damas came to save him and Jak to his audience. "And after the explosion, Jak frees Damas from under the vehicle and tries to heal him with his eco, and it kinda works. Damas wakes up anyway, but he thinks he's dying still, so he gives Jak the mission to find his son, Mar. He says that Jak would recognize the kid by an amulet he's wearing that symbolizes the House of Mar. Then Damas hands Jak an amulet just like the one his younger self was wearing before we sent him and younger Samos back to the past. So then we figure that Jak is Mar, Damas's son, just a lot older than he expected because of all the time travel and stuff."

Sig, the temporary King while King Damas recovers, recalls his long standing mission from Damas to search Haven City for Mar and stares at Jak, surprised to find out that the cherry he'd been running with for a while now was actually who he'd been searching for, only a much older version because of the equally surprising time travel. "You said he'd returned to Spargus, Jak, and that he was wounded, but you never said anything else."

"Not only are you The Mar," Ashelin amends her earlier statement, "but you're also the son of Damas?"

"Yeah! Jak's a prince! Who knew?" Daxter laughs, thinking about how his best friend (and sidekick) had been a prince the whole time and he had no idea.

A paint-faced monk appears from an entrance at the back of the platform. "The King has recovered somewhat and is now awake," he reported, looking mainly at Sig but glancing around at all the others.

"I should see him," Jak says reservedly. Everyone else nods assent and Sig motions for the monk to lead everyone back to Damas's rooms.

They all arrive in his audience chambers via the lift. The monk leads them to a side door concealed behind a column and into a hallway with a few doors. They go to the end of the hallway and the monk goes through a door at the end into a sparse bed chamber. Only Jak crosses the threshold; all the others stop before it.

"All of you," Sig addresses the monks, "out. Now." Being the temporary king, they obey him, looking at Jak with distrust but also obeying Sig and filing out. "Good luck, cherry," he tells Jak as he closes the door and follows everyone back to the audience chamber, leaving Jak alone with Damas.

Damas stirs on his bed, apparently conscious like the monk had said. With a groan he says, "I'm still alive?" Then he looks around. "I'm in my palace? Jak, you're here too?" Jak comes to kneel at the side of the bed. "Am I still alive?" He tries to sit up but a sudden pain hits his abdomen and he falls back. "Apparently."

"Yes, Damas, you're still alive. You and your hard head." The two laugh weakly, Damas suddenly cutting off as his abdomen pains him again. There's an awkward silence. "Ah, Damas, about what you said before... About your son..."

"Yes. My son, Mar. I told you to find him. What happened?"

"Well," Jak, oddly afraid in a way he never has been before, stalls. "The city is safe now. Erol's threat is gone, and so is the Dark Maker ship."

"That is good, Jak. Very good. You did it, didn't you? You have my thanks again. But what about my son? You mentioned my son."

"Yeah, your son. Well, I found him."

Damas grins but picks up on Jak's nervousness and worry. "You seem upset. Is something wrong? Is my son...alright?"

"Yes, he is." Jak took the amulet of Mar from a pocket, the one Damas had given him. "You gave me this to find him and said that he'd be wearing it."

Damas nodded for Jak to continue speaking when silence fell upon them again.

"When I first came to Haven City, I had come through a time rift from the past. I was captured and stuck in prison, where the dark eco happened." Jak shuddered in memory. "Daxter helped me escape and we joined the Underground. Two of the people there were an old man named Kor and a small boy with this hanging around his neck." Jak moves the amulet around in his hand, obviously talking about it. Damas stays silent, knowing that it is his son Jak is talking about, though the Jak in the story had no idea. "Apparently he was very important, though we didn't find out why for a while. One day he disappeared, kidnapped by Kor, the old man, who we found out was the disguised Metal Head leader of the horde attacking Haven City. We went to the nest and attacked it. When we cronfronted Kor, he told us the secret about why the boy was so important. We didn't know his name or where he came from, but Kor told us, with the active time rift behind him, that the boy had a pure light of the Precursors or something, that he was the only one who could unlock a Precursor power stone that Kor had wanted to increase his own power." Jak paused, remembering how Kor had taunted him. "Kor also said how the boy was me and that I was actually from the present and not the past that I had lived in for years before coming through the time rift." Damas's eyes widen, suddenly figuring out what Jak was trying to say. Jak, who was deep in his own memories, hadn't seen his father's expression of enlightenment, though, and continued speak. Damas stayed silent and did not interrupt him. Instead he decides to stare at Jak's face and see the family resemblance that he had never noticed before. "We defeated Kor and saved my younger self. Then the others showed up with a machine Kiera had built called a rift rider meant to travel back in time. She'd built it intending to take us--the old me, her, the older Samos, and Daxter--back to the past, but it had to be used for the young Samos and young me. Old Samos, who actually remembered all of this happening because it had already happened to him, said that the young me and his younger self had to go back to the past so I could grow up in safety. The young me gives me the amulet that hung around his neck," Jak takes the second one out of another pocket. It's dirtier than the one Damas had given him but just as old looking. Jak continues speaking as he places the second one next the first on his hand. "...and then they leave through the time portal and it collapses." Jak's eyes leave the past and refocus on Damas. "Then, later, you come to save me, but we crash and you're injured. I use light eco to heal you, but you think that you're dying and tell me to save the city, save the people. And to find your son, who I would recognize with this." Jak falls silent again. "I..." He tries to speak, but can't, so he looks away from his father's face, which is all he can really think about, and looks down at the two amulets instead.

Damas pushes himself up, ignoring the pain this time, and takes Jak's shoulder in a strong grip. He then pulls the hero into an awkward hug that surprises Jak, who doesn't really know what to do about it. The two amulets sparkle in Jak's hand as he grips them tightly. "Father..." Jak whispers as a lump in his throat cuts off his voice.

"You are my son, Jak. Mar. _You are my son_."


	2. Bonds 01: First Words, Last Words

**READ!!! IMPORTANT!**

This is the first story of a collection of events taking place after 'Father and Son'. They are all in loose chronological order and are rather like snapshots of Jak's and Damas's lives after they discover they are father and son. You could call them bonding moments, so that's what they'll be called.

* * *

"Since I missed most of your childhood," Damas began rather painfully, even wincing at the thought of all the lost years, "please tell me; when did you start speaking? For the few years that I still had you, you never spoke, even though other children your age did. You were adept at communicating silently and had even been learning the monks hand language before you disappeared. We believed you were mute, though the monks told me you were fine."

Jak sat on one of the flat rocks in the pool in Damas's audience chamber. They were the only two currently there, since the monks no longer had to constantly supervise Damas's recovery and Sig was elsewhere in the city fulfilling the official public duties of King that Damas couldn't return to doing yet.

"While I was in the past, I never spoke. I was very good friends with Daxter and he always understood me, even though I didn't say anything. We were always together and he would speak for me. But then we came through the time rift into the present, about three years ago now, and I was captured by Erol and put in prison for the Baron's experimental--and as of yet unsuccessful--Dark Warrior Program. I was there for two years," Jak struggled to control his voice, which had roughened slightly at the memories, "until Daxter came to break me out. That day, I was nearly unconscious, but then I heard him, and he jumped on me to try getting my attention. He wanted me to say something, do something, to show that I was still alive and that I was still me. At his insistence, I revived somewhat and said, 'I'm gonna kill Praxis!' The Praxis who had finally given up on the Dark Warrior Program and had ordered Erol to kill me. And then I transformed for the first time into my dark eco form, making Praxis's program a success and nearly killing my best friend." Jak laughed mockingly at himself. "My first words were a vow to kill the Baron of Haven City. And I tried to. I even snuck into the palace once, but he found me first and escaped our fight before I could kill him. Kor, the Metal Head leader, ended up doing it. I was there and witnessed the confrontation. Praxis was the only one who didn't die immediately from Kor's attack, but he did die, with me at his side." Jak fell silent, remembering the day.

Damas stood and walked slowly across the stones of his pool until sitting down on one next to Jak's. "I believe it is better that you did not kill him, Jak. What would satiating your revenge have accomplished? Just a dead man. A dead father, actually."

"I wouldn't have been able to look Ashelin straight in the face," Jak mumbled, looking down at his reflection in the water. "It was strange, in the end. It seemed like Praxis was a different man, almost. Once I saw Kor transform and reveal that he was a Metal Head leader, all I could see Praxis as was a leader trying to save his city. He charged Kor, sword drawn, with his Krimson Guards around him, trying to kill the leader to stop the war. Right then, that's all he was trying to do; not oppress Haven City, not torture any of the people, no Krimson Guards abusing citizens, not hunting the Underground... Praxis just didn't seem so bad right then."

"Before the coup, he wasn't that bad of a guy. He cared about his daughter and would help me run the city. After the coup, the power got to his head, and his fixation on the war grew," Damas explained.

"That might be why, after Kor's attack when I went to Praxis's side, I didn't kill him right then. Maybe I just didn't want to anymore. When I saw him defending the city, I didn't want revenge."

"Holding on to revenge can twist men away from their true intentions. I'm glad that my son is a man who can let go." Damas smiled at Jak, also his son, Mar, who was much older than he should have been. "What were his last words?"

"He told me that I was his weapon. From the Dark Warrior Program. 'You are the supreme weapon, Jak. And I made you. Still, any leader worth his salt always has his backup plan. Remember, the first rule in making a bomb is to always make two.' Those were his exact words. And then he basically handed me the Precursor Stone, which I needed to attack the Metal Head nest and go after Kor and the young me."

Damas couldn't help but grinning, even if they were discussing a man's death. "Yeah, that sounds like the old Praxis that I remember. Always had a backup plan for everything, he did. Even his daughter's birthday parties! You should've seen him, back in those days. He was a good man then, but war changes people. He changed after it started getting worse. Especially after the old city wall was destroyed and we had to fall back behind the shield and a stronger wall."

"War does indeed change people," Jak said, his voice indicating that he was obviously thinking about himself and his eco powers.

"Changes aren't always bad, Jak."

Jak grunted noncommittally.

"Come, my son. Let us end this talk and get some food."


	3. Bonds 02: Crocodogs and Eco

Jak took the lift up to Damas's audience chamber, wiping the sweat from his face and mostly ignoring Daxter's chatter. Though he'd adapted to the desert conditions in and around Spargus, he'd also spent the entire morning in Kleiver's coastal turret, firing on the inbound Metal Heads and other assorted hazards of the ocean and generally practicing his shooting. Kleiver had shown up to harass Jak sometime in the middle of it, but when he saw the turret's record of Jak's hits during that timed cycle, he left with only a mildly biting exchange of insults. Apparently he didn't take well to not being the tall poppy on the gun any more, especially when it was a far distance.

Immediately as the lift doors opened, Daxter dove into the water pool, declaring his love of water along the way, something he always did.

Damas, who had been conferring with Sig, looked away briefly from his old Wastelander friend's face to see who'd arrived. Sig also turned to look but didn't stop his report of city affairs.

Jak waited patiently, watching his friend Daxter swim around, until he heard Damas say, "Very good, Sig. Have those artifacts from that last storm delivered to the monks. That is all for today."

"I heard the monks finally recognized your broken leg as healed," Sig said in a lighter tone, no longer acting the regent.

"Yes. I will soon be returning in full capacity and you won't have to run the city for me."

"That is good news. I'll go see about those artifacts." Sig took his leave of the King. "Hey, chili pepper!" he addressed Daxter, who was busily enjoying the water. "How's the Peacemaker, Jak?"

"The marauders that attacked me three days ago thought it worked great," Jak said with a predatory grin.

Sig just laughed and continued to the lift and down, out of the palace.

"Hello Jak!" Damas greeted as his son finally approached. "How was the turret today?" Jak had told Damas upon leaving that morning that he'd be out training on Kleiver's old post.

"It was good today. I beat my old top score from last month. Kleiver came around, but he saw my score and didn't have much to say."

"Ha!" Damas's tone of voice changed. "I've been thinking on old times, back when I still had you with me, and I remembered that you had a pet. A crocodog, though I can't remember his name, that only liked you for some reason. What happened to him?"

"The crocodog? I can't remember his name either, but I had him for a few more years in Sandover where I lived in the past. I remember that the past me took him through the time rift, but I don't remember too much else. He found a mate and had puppies at some point, though, because whenever I would go to the beach there'd be crocodogs in front of some of the houses. They all hated me, of course. Whenever Samos made me go to his green eco collectors to unblock the vents, I'd have to run past the crocodogs to get to them."

"You must have learned to run fast," Damas laughed, "to outrun them as a young boy. Though, you always had been a quick one, son. You'd chase after the monks' blue eco toys whenever they let you play with them. Sometimes you'd even catch them, if the monks didn't come and retrieve the things first."

"Blue eco toys?"

"Yeah. They were some artifacts found in the desert. They contained blue eco, but it was sealed and the monks couldn't even get to it. So they let my young son play with them. You would always run faster when you had one..."

"It's probably because I was channeling some of the blue eco inside. In Sandover and other places in the past, there were open blue eco vents, or just random clusters of it laying around. I could pick some up, or stand over a vent, and channel a bunch of blue eco, using it to run faster or activate high-jump pads, even to use some precursor technology like moving platforms or doors. I'd be a magnet for precursor orbs, too."

"Channeling eco, hm? That is a rare skill indeed. Some of the monks here can do it, but none of them have an affinity as strong as yours."

"It's probably the reason why I survived the dark eco experiments," Jak said in a darker tone. "I could channel eco like no one else could, so I channeled the dark eco too."

"Leave those unwelcome thoughts, Jak. You can channel light eco too; I know from personal experience, remember?"

"Hey, you could channel it a little bit, too. And you weren't even conscious then."

"It is said to be a gift of Mar's descendants, to have an affinity for channeling eco. Our ancestors were said to have powers, though that would of course be because of the eco that they could channel. The ability steadily weakened in our family, though for you it apparently came back strongly."

"Hey, yeah!" Daxter, who had been eavesdropping, came over, still dripping wet. He shook his fur out, splattering Jak and Damas with droplets of water and fluffing out his fur. "Back in Sandover, we went to Misty Island once, and we found some weird precursor thing. Jak touched it and it activated, cause apparently he's so good that he doesn't even need to channel eco to activate stuff. Then he threw it at a lurker that ambushed us and it exploded, knocking Jak into me and me into a tub of dark eco! I popped back out short, orange, and fuzzy thanks to this guy." Daxter used to be bitter about that, but it became a joke that he'd harass Jak with. Then he discovered that he was a precursor and shortly after that finally acquired pants.

"You used to be normal?" Damas said, slightly surprised.

Daxter, of course, took it just a bit differently. "Of course I used to be normal, Sand King!" Ever since Daxter had referred to Damas as the Sand King that one time, he'd continued to use the title on occasion. "How else would I have gotten to miss pants to much?" Daxter then stared down lovingly at his pants and sighed, "Ah, pants. Wonderful, wonderful pants."

Damas looked to Jak with a question in his eyes. "Ever since he fell in that dark eco, he complained about not getting to wear pants any more. And underwear, too, sometimes."

"Hey, Jak, let's tell his King-ly-ness here about our first adventure! It was, of course, all about _me_," Daxter piped up again.

"It actually was, originally. We--Daxter and I mainly but Samos and Keira would help, too--were on a quest to get Daxter changed back."

"Please tell me of your adventures, my son."

Jak never got the chance to start. Needing no further prompting, Daxter, jumping up to the arm of Damas's throne, took the spotlight and leapt into full story-telling mode, recalling their entire first adventure. Jak would contribute to the tale as well, usually to correct Daxter when he was embellishing the story too much, but he left the main narration to his friend.


End file.
